Lyles focuses on advances made in rough outing

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Astros pitcher Jordan Lyles was roughed up by the Jays on Tuesday afternoon in Dunedin, Fla., allowing six runs and 10 hits -- including two home runs -- in 3 2/3 innings. It has been a rough spring for the 22-year-old, but he remains confident he will make it to where he needs to be when the season starts.

"My stat lines this spring haven't been good in any way, but at the end of the day you can't look at that," he said. "Personally, I would like to be better, but I'm working on things, and I'm going to try to be ready for April and not this month. I'm looking forward to the season. This is the best I felt in Spring Training, and the numbers aren't there for me right now. I'm not overly worried about that."

Lyles, who has allowed 36 hits and 23 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings this spring, gave up a solo homer to Melky Cabrera in the first and a two-run homer to Jose Bautista in the fourth. He said was working on spotting his slider in Tuesday's outing.

"This is probably the first time I've not thrown any cutters and working on the slider," Lyles said. "I really worked on that today, just throwing sliders, and I really like the direction we're going with that, so I can lay off the cutters more. I got some good swings out of guys in that aspect, and I like where that's headed.

"A couple guys made me pay on fastballs today. I'm not too worried about that. They were just balls over the plate, and good players making good swings. The 2-0 fastball to Bautista, that's just a good swing by a really good player."

This was the first time this spring Lyles was paired with Jason Castro, which is something the big right-hander liked.

"It was nice getting back out on the mound working with Jason again for the first time this spring," Lyles said. "It was fun to work with him again, and going into the season hopefully we can get together a couple of more times and get in sync. But like I said, it was good to get back with him today."

Said manager Bo Porter: "He just got the ball elevated and had a chance to put some hitters away and didn't make quality pitches in those situations, and those guys put some pretty good swings on them."